Animal Alternatives

An animal alternatives search should be conducted to meet the requirements of Animal Welfare Act to consider alternatives to animal research and to address the 3R’s (refine, reduce, replace).

ALTBIB, an NIH website, is recommended as the search interface for alternatives.

In the ALTBIB search box, type the animal species and one or more other terms to represent methods or painful procedures performed on the animal; the general research topic/disease/condition may also be searched to determine if there are new or improved models.

Alternatives terminology is automatically incorporated with your search terms, and the search is then transferred to and conducted within the PubMed database.

Review articles retrieved and comment on whether any methods are identified which can be implemented in your protocol.

Conduct a separate ALTBIB search for each procedure or group of concepts.

In addition to the ALTBIB search, look at the links to specialized websites (Johns Hopkins AltWeb, UCDavis Alternatives), as well as specialized books on animal models and methods listed in other sections on this page. The alternatives search can also be conducted in other databases such as EMBASE, BIOSIS, AGRICOLA